SEPTEMBERS ... Just how good/bad are they?

[Met.]

September '16 was the last decent one I remember. 2017, dreadful. 2018 very average and don't remember it at all really. 2019 was OK with some sunny weather mid-month but ruined it with insane flooding rainfall in the final third. This year so far, insanely cloudy, think I've seen the sun about, oh, once since it started, just like all of summer.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

23 hours ago, MP-R said:

For me, central to the summer feel is the sun strength, the amount of sun, hours of daylight, daily maxes and the look of nature. So June wins hands down against September. The only time September comes close to June is when we have a stinker June followed by a good September  or at least a spell of good weather in September given it’s harder to achieve in September than June.

Agreed. Having warm (or even hot) sunny weather during September isn't enough to make it feel summery. Let's take that very warm spell we had at the end of Sept 2011 and into October. Whilst it was a fantastic spell for the time of year, it was still pretty obvious that it was indeed autumn. The surrounding nature, the weakening of the sun, taking much longer (or not getting one at all) to get a suntan and the rapidly declining daylight hours told me what season we were really in. 

It is the same as having unseasonably cold weather during March and April not feeling like winter.

[al78]

On 04/09/2020 at 14:24, Harry233 said:

North west highlands are extremely wet. 14 days of rain in a row seems very typical. Most parts of the north west highlands receive over 100 inches of rain a year. Glasgow which is the wettest City in the UK receive half of that.  

14 days of rain in the highlands is unlucky based on my experience of many summer holidays up there. Even last June when I was there for a fortnight and had to endure the summer killer known as the stagnated low pressure over the UK, I didn't get rained on much, the main features of the weather were the cool temperatures and near constant clag, and being on the Ullapool-Stornoway ferry in a NEly gale, perfect for sending a sizeable swell between the islands and mainland (one way to mitigate seasickness is to look outside to the horizon).

[al78]

15 hours ago, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

Agreed. Having warm (or even hot) sunny weather during September isn't enough to make it feel summery. Let's take that very warm spell we had at the end of Sept 2011 and into October. Whilst it was a fantastic spell for the time of year, it was still pretty obvious that it was indeed autumn. The surrounding nature, the weakening of the sun, taking much longer (or not getting one at all) to get a suntan and the rapidly declining daylight hours told me what season we were really in. 

It is the same as having unseasonably cold weather during March and April not feeling like winter.

I'd tend to agree. It feels like summer until the sun goes down at half past six. The 30C at the end of September was spectacular, I don't recall it ever feeling so warm outside so late in the year before or since.

[The PIT]

Sunny Sheffield up 14.8C -1.1C below normal. Rainfall up to 8.2mm 12.5% of the monthly average.

Should be around or just above normal by the 15th. No sign of further rainfall at the moment after today.

[Sunny76]

September 1983 was warm or hot at times.

September 1980 was quite warm.

84 was a chilly September, followed by a cold winter.